Dear Future Me

"No one ever made a difference by being like everybody else." — P.T Barnum.

I hope you are proud.

Proud of who you are and the decisions you took in these two years, I also hope you have decided to change the things that always bothered you, because one thing that scares me about "future" is reading this in two years and realizing that only the time has changed but I stayed the same.

I want you to have no regrets on the time spent at Apple Developer Academy or university. You might not have created the biggest or best project, but if you look back, hope you've learned a lot and also shared your knowledge with others and that you have designed something that helped and put smiles in someone's face.

In the end of it all, being successful (in what society defines as successful) isn't what matters most.

Right now, exactly March 2021, you are the happiest you have ever been, my resolution for you is that while reading this, you also feel at the best moment of your life.

So, to ensure you'll always come back to this state of well being, your 21-year-old self will give you some advice:

• If you still think you don't know enough about something (be it programming, designing or any other thing you started to enjoy in these 2 years) to start a project you dream of doing, stop thinking like this. Start doing it and when you find something that scares you, ask for help and learn from people.

"Comfort is the enemy of progress."

• Be careful with the way you manifest your words, as words have great power and even if you forget things you said, someone will always remember how they felt when they heard it. Speak with intention, with a purpose.
• If somewhere in this path you forgot about your dreams of teaching and becoming a teacher, this is the moment to remember it. You had the chance to meet great tutors in your life, people who gave you the chance to fail and learn with it, instead of blaming you for your mistakes. I hope you've become this kind of person. (And even if you decided to take another route of life, do not ever forget to share what you know with people who want to learn.)
• Everything in your life was obtained through hard work, persistence and patience. Keep working in always being better than yesterday. Not better than others, but better than yourself.
• Trust people and the potential of collaboration. Everything is so much easier and has greater meaning when done in and for community.
• Never forget to be grateful.

Dear future me, I hope you never lost your passion. Always remember what brought you to study Design and Technology: the desire to create a place where everyone has the chance to achieve their dreams.

You were given the opportunity to grow as a person and professionally, I hope you haven't wasted this amazing chance.

Sincerely,

Jessica Meguro.